WASHINGTON: The Copyright Alliance launched its "One Voice" campaign on June 9, to engage artists and creators in a dialogue about the importance of copyrights.

The nonprofit alliance was founded in 2007 to promote the value of copyright; the new campaign will seek to raise the organization's profile and to attract new members.

Working with AOR 133 Public Affairs, the Alliance will first use grassroots efforts to reach artists directly, both through its recently launched One Voice member Web site and by encouraging word of mouth, attending conferences, and getting artists to visit other artists, according to Patrick Ross, executive director of the Copyright Alliance.

"It's not going to be something where we're necessarily focused on talking to reporters every day," Ross said. "We're going to be focused on bringing the artists in." Ross, along with Lucinda Dugger, director of outreach and field initiatives, will have a strong presence at events and conferences, speaking and exhibiting.

But the PR campaign won't ignore media completely, according to Amy Lee, a partner at 133 Public Affairs. The campaign will reach out to trade media to inform musicians, writers, and artists of the Alliance and Web site.

"We are assuming that since we're only a year old, there are a lot of artists out there who haven't heard of us yet," Ross said. "So raising awareness is step one and member recruitment is step two." Previously, the Alliance used an e-mail list, sent out newsletters, and communicated via a blog. The new Web site will connect artists to each other, Ross said, and also increase the impact of the Alliance.

"The idea was we would create a place [for artists]," Ross said, so the grassroots PR strategy fulfills that goal. "Artists could talk business strategies, they could talk artists' techniques, they could look for assistance on projects, they could promote events or works that they have coming up, and they could also talk about public policy issues that affect artists, including copyright."